New Hampshire

Year in New Hampshire helped mold future Toronto stars

Published

3 years ago

April 22, 2022

Year in New Hampshire helped mold future Toronto stars

The Toronto Blue Jays are the actual deal. Led by homegrown standouts like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio and others, the Blue Jays have emerged as a powerhouse and entered the season a well-liked choose to win the World Collection.

However lengthy earlier than they established themselves within the majors, a lot of Toronto’s high contributors got here up collectively within the minor leagues. That journey included a cease in our yard, the place a couple of years in the past native residents bought an up shut preview of what was to come back.

Guerrero, Bichette and Biggio had been three of the highest gamers on the 2018 New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Blue Jays’ Double-A affiliate based mostly out of close by Manchester, N.H. That 12 months’s Fisher Cats loved probably the most profitable seasons in membership historical past, successful the Jap League title whereas rating among the many high drawing Double-A franchises in baseball with a median of 5,065 followers per recreation.

Given a number of the names concerned, it’s not laborious to see why.

Large league pedigree

Because the sons of former huge league stars, Guerrero, Bichette and Biggio all had unusual title recognition at the same time as minor leaguers and shortly proved that they had the expertise to reside as much as the expectations.

However they weren’t the one ones, because the membership featured a complete of 27 gamers who would someday make the majors, together with present Jays nearer Jordan Romano, infielder Santiago Espinal and outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who made a quick cameo earlier than getting known as as much as Triple-A.

“We had an excellent group that 12 months,” mentioned Bichette, the son of former Crimson Sox outfielder Dante Bichette. “A variety of particular reminiscences.”

Guerrero specifically was a celebrity, displaying off the elite expertise that will someday assist him grow to be among the many greatest baseball gamers on the planet. That summer season he terrorized opposing pitchers to put up a .402 common and 1.120 OPS whereas hitting 14 house runs with 21 walks in opposition to 27 strikeouts over 61 video games. Unsurprisingly, he was known as as much as Triple-A by late July and by the next spring was within the majors.

But even after Guerrero moved up, the Fisher Cats by no means skipped a beat.

Biggio, the son of Corridor of Famer and longtime Houston Astros star Craig Biggio, completed because the Jap League MVP after posting 26 house runs with 99 RBI, 20 stolen bases, 100 walks and an .887 OPS.

Bichette posted 43 doubles, and as soon as the postseason started the Fisher Cats swept their means by way of the playoffs to win the membership’s first title in seven years.

“In our opinion we had been one of the best minor league crew on the market, so we went on the market each single day and knew we must always win each recreation,” Biggio mentioned. “With the quantity of expertise that we now have right here within the huge leagues, it’s an analogous mindset simply realizing how good we had been again then and the way good we are actually.”

Good reminiscences of Manchester

Whereas the gamers had been so consumed by baseball that they didn’t have a lot time to get out and discover the surroundings, all three mentioned they loved their time within the Granite State. The expertise with the Fisher Cats helped mould them into the gamers they’re at present, they usually appreciated how shortly they had been embraced by the hometown followers.

“All people liked taking part in there,” Guerrero mentioned.

These days when Blue Jays stars return to New England, they arrive because the opposition. The Blue Jays are anticipated to be among the many hardest challengers the Crimson Sox will face this season, and between this week’s sequence in Boston and subsequent week’s in Toronto the 2 sides can have an opportunity to set the tone for the season early.

But whereas it’s been practically 30 years because the Jays have gained a World Collection title, this group already has proven the devoted in Manchester that they know the right way to win. Now they hope to attract from that formative 12 months and show they’ll do it once more on the highest degree.

“We’re assured in our skill to win, however it is a completely different degree,” Bichette mentioned. “So we’ve bought to go on the market and proceed to work as laborious as we are able to and play as laborious as we are able to. We’re assured in our skill however we’ve bought to go on the market and do it.”

E mail: mcerullo@northofboston.com

Twitter: @MacCerullo.

Source link

Click to comment

New Hampshire

NH weather: Seacoast is expected to get some snow today. Here’s how much

Published

2 hours ago

December 20, 2024

Press Room

NH weather: Seacoast is expected to get some snow today. Here’s how much

After a week of warmer than average temperatures, New England is heading into the weekend before Christmas with snow showers.

The snow will return the biting wind chills and freezing temperatures typical of a New England December back to the region, including New Hampshire and Maine.

In New Hampshire, today’s snow will mostly impact the Seacoast, with a light coating expected across the state. Here’s what to know about the timing, location and effects of today’s snowfall in New Hampshire.

Where in NH will it snow today?

According to the National Weather Service (NWS) of Gray, Maine, light snow showers will fall this evening into tonight across Maine and New Hampshire. The weather system is classified as a weak clipper, meaning it will bring strong winds and cold temperatures, but little precipitation.

Most areas of New Hampshire and Maine will see a light coating, with up to an inch of snow possible along the Seacoast of southeastern New Hampshire and mid-coast Maine. As of right now, the NWS has issued a hazardous weather outlook for south central Maine, southwest Maine and southern New Hampshire.

Driving conditions in NH today

Today’s snowfall will not cause significant accumulation, but the NWS warns that the timing of the storm will affect the evening commute.

NH weather this weekend

While the past week has seen above average temperatures, this weekend will turn much colder. On Saturday and Sunday, the coast will see sub-zero wind chills with temperatures in the low 20s or early 30s during the day and the single digits at night.

Source link

New Hampshire

NH marks Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day with vigils

Published

9 hours ago

December 20, 2024

Press Room

NH marks Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day with vigils

Nearly a dozen New Hampshire communities are hosting vigils this week to remember friends and family who passed away because of homelessness this year. Keene hosted a vigil on Monday, Concord is scheduled for Thursday, with others scheduled for Saturday.

Click here for more details on the vigils scheduled around New Hampshire this week.

“It’s the first night of winter, the longest night of the year, the darkest day of the year,” said Maggie Fogarty from the American Friends Service Committee. “It’s a good time for a solemn reflection on the loss of our siblings to homelessness, also coming as it does during a season of celebration and of light.”

Fogarty helps compile the list of people who will be remembered at these vigils. She explained that it includes people who passed away while being unhoused, as well as people who died prematurely because of the toll from being unhoused, even after finding housing.

About 60 people will be remembered this year, either just with their name, or a memory from someone who knew them. While some names are submitted by friends and family, most are from people who provide supportive services to unhoused people.

She added that these vigils are also a chance for community members to reflect and commit to advocacy, especially because 2025 is a budget-writing year for state government.

“That commitment to system change and to ensuring that public policy, not just charity, combine to protect everyone from poverty,” she said. “That’s as important an aspect of this remembrance as the coming together as a community to remember our siblings.”

According to a new report, New Hampshire saw the highest percentage rise in homelessness in the country between 2022 and 2023. The number of people facing homelessness in the Granite State went up by roughly 52%, while other states’ saw an average increase of 12% during the same time period, according to the report.

The report is put out annually by the New Hampshire Coalition to End Homelessness using information from a “point in time” count, which is an effort to count the number of homeless individuals in the state on a single day each year.

That data in the latest report suggests that New Hampshire saw a decline in veterans experiencing homelessness between 2022 and 2023. But the problem worsened for people dealing with chronic homelessness, single adults, families and sheltered individuals.

NHPR’s Olivia Richardson contributed to this report.

Source link

New Hampshire

NH Life Sciences adds new members and industry partners – NH Business Review

Published

17 hours ago

December 19, 2024

Press Room

NH Life Sciences adds new members and industry partners – NH Business Review

Trade group now has 23 members working in a growing state sector

Workers at Lonza Portmouth at Pease International Tradeport produce the active ingredient used in the COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna. The company joined NH Life Sciences as a founding member earlier this year.(Courtesy photo)

NH Life Sciences, a statewide trade group representing the life sciences industry in the Granite State, capped its inaugural year by adding several new members, bringing its total to 23, the group announced Thursday.

“As a newly formed association, our members have the unique ability to help guide the direction of New Hampshire’s life sciences growth,” said Andrea Hechavarria, president & CEO of NH Life Sciences, in a press release.

New Hampshire’s bioscience industry employed 9,330 individuals in 2023 across 1,048 business establishments, according to a Dec. 2 report by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization and the Council of State Bioscience Associations, of which NH Life Sciences is a member.

The new NH Life Sciences member companies are:

Resonetics, a Nashua-based medical company that provides medical device advanced engineering, prototyping, product development and micro manufacturing.
BA Sciences, a Salem-based company that offers a full-service analytical testing laboratory.
Ovik Health, a Portsmouth-based health-care technology company with products ranging from wound and burn dressings, compression solutions, to tapes and bandages.

NH Life Sciences also added its first group of associate members who support the life sciences industry:

Decco, a Nashua provider of specialized construction, maintenance, critical equipment handling and fabrication services to biopharmaceutical, technology and industrial clients throughout New England
Ethikos Tech, an IT professional services firm.
Middlesex Gases, a third-generation company manufacturing and analyzing specialty gases for biotechnology and life science companies that serves companies in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Piquette and Howard Electrical, a Plaistow-based service-disabled veteran-owned small business and regional electrical contractor that has an extensive portfolio of life sciences companies.
SkyTerra, a Nashua-based provider of customized IT support for life sciences and biotech companies.

New Hampshire Life Sciences launched in January, when Novocure, an oncology company with its North American flagship location in Portsmouth, and Novo Nordisk, a global health care company with operations in West Lebanon, signed on as founding members. It has since added MilliporeSigma and Lonza Portsmouth as founding members, as well as other member and industry partners.

Source link